After Car Crash, Liquor Laws and Airlines Are Debated

By DAN FROSCH

Published: February 19, 2007

The car wreck on Nov. 11 was as gruesome as any New Mexico had ever seen.

The authorities said Dana Papst's pickup truck, driving on the wrong side of a highway just north of Santa Fe, plowed headlong into a minivan. The crash killed five of six members of the Gonzales family, who were returning home from a soccer tournament. It also killed Mr. Papst, 44.

Mr. Papst was drunk, the authorities said, when he boarded a US Airways flight from Phoenix to Albuquerque, and he continued to drink whiskey on the plane. He was heading home from the airport when the crash occurred.

Since the accident, New Mexico officials have taken steps to ensure that airlines fully comply with state liquor laws.

The authorities found that US Airways lacked a New Mexico liquor license, and that Mr. Papst had grown even more intoxicated on his flight -- some witnesses reported him as disoriented and slurring his speech -- before it landed. Tests showed Mr. Papst's blood alcohol content had been four times the state's legal limit.

Starting last month, the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department issued cease and desist letters to US Airways and two other airlines that do not hold liquor licenses in the state, Frontier and Northwest.

In response, all three have halted alcohol sales on flights to and from New Mexico, and both US Airways and Northwest have applied for a state liquor license.

''Those were the airlines that we are aware of that did not have licenses,'' said John Wheeler, crime policy adviser to Gov. Bill Richardson, who convened a drunken driving task force in response to the crash. ''This accident was an eye-opener for all of them, a real wake-up call. Frankly, I'm surprised the airlines didn't move quicker to bring themselves into compliance and that they waited for the state to act.''

Morgan Durrant, a US Airways spokesman, said, ''We have licenses where the law says we need them, and we are continuing to comply with New Mexico's request that we not serve alcohol on all our aircraft taking off and leaving that state.''

Frontier, which has liquor licenses in Colorado and California, where it buys and stores its alcohol, has questioned whether it needs to do more.

''We're operating under the assumption that we are in compliance with the F.A.A. and interstate commerce laws,'' said Joe Hodas, a Frontier spokesman. ''Obtaining liquor licenses in all of the states where we fly could be cumbersome and expensive. We've never received a request like this before.''

Alcohol sales on airlines are not regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, which requires only that alcohol be served by the airline itself, not another party. According to the Air Transport Association, a trade organization that represents passenger carriers, state law binds airlines only when they are on the ground. As a result, some carriers, like American Airlines, will buy liquor licenses in states that mandate them for airplanes, like New Mexico. But others, like Frontier, will not.

''We're looking into the law right now and previous precedents to determine our course of action,'' Mr. Hodas said. ''Ultimately, we want to obey what's being asked of us. It's not that we want to be a renegade airline.''

New Mexico officials are still investigating the crash involving Mr. Papst and have not ruled out further legal action against US Airways. The airline has already been issued a citation for serving an intoxicated customer, which is barred under New Mexico law.

The local authorities' toughened stance on the airline industry after the crash is New Mexico's latest effort to rein in drunken driving, long a problem in the state.

''This was an individual that was clearly impaired, and we find the behavior of the airline in serving Mr. Papst highly problematic,'' Mr. Wheeler said.

Mr. Wheeler, who is also a volunteer assistant fire chief for Santa Fe County, remembers that November night well, and the mangled wreckage.

''The horrific nature of this crash is unequaled by anything I've experienced in my career,'' he said. ''We have to get the airlines to change their cultural and social attitudes about serving alcohol.''